For many years it has been recognized that buildings under construction present a safety problem. In particular, it is not uncommon for young children to come onto the property of a building that is under construction and to climb and move throughout the building during periods of time when the construction site is unattended. In this same regard, it is not unusual for children and adults as well to stumble, fall or trip while moving through and around the building site, often resulting in serious bodily injury. One particular area of a building that is under construction that presents a special problem is the floor of the building before the walls are actually erected. This is especially true with floors that extend high above the surrounding ground area such as second floor areas.
Beginning in 1993, OSHA will require some type of temporary railing structure around floor areas that are disposed a certain height above the surrounding ground.
There have been attempts at designing temporary rail structures for buildings under construction. For example, see the disclosures found in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,747,898; 3,756,568; 3,881,698; 3,901,481; 3,920,221; 3,938,619; 3,995,833; 4,236,698; and 4,363,467.
However, to a large extent, most of these temporary rail structures are impractical and difficult to use. One of the main problems with temporary rail structures of the past is that they are difficult to handle and hard to attach to the floor structure. Temporary rail structures that are difficult to apply or attach to the open sided floor of a building under construction will not be used efficiently by building framers.
Therefore, there is a need for a reasonably inexpensive temporary rail structure for use by residential builders that is easy to erect and easy to disassemble.